The history of cinema is littered with escape scenes. In most cases, they constitute the high point, the climax of a story. Yet since the 1930s, some feature films have turned escape into the very engine of their narrative. Whether intimate or spectacular - or both on occasion - with their codes and conventions, they have emerged as a sub-genre of the prison or runaway film. On the strength of their dramaturgic power (will the hero or heroes escape?), irrespective of time or place, they express a determined quest for freedom and defiance against oppression. These films are an invitation to follow the destiny of courageous individuals, individuals who decided one day to defy destiny and take their lives into their own hands.